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Evert says:"A Lot to Think About"

Publisher's Summary

Five years after his brilliantly successful, Pulitzer Prize-winning book about God as portrayed in the Old Testament, Jack Miles gives us his striking consideration of Christ. He presents Christ as a hero of literature based only in part on the historical Jesus, asking us to take the idea of Christ as God Incarnate not as a dogma of religion but as the premise of a work of art, the New Testament.

As this story begins, God has not kept his promise to end the 500 year oppression of the Children of Israel and return them to greatness. Under Rome, their latest oppressor, the Jews face a holocaust. This is God's supreme crisis. Astonishingly, God resolves the dilemma by becoming a Jew himself, Christ, inflicting upon himself in advance the very agony his people will suffer, revising in the process the meaning of victory and defeat. By dying and rising as Christ, God not only swallows up the historical defeat of the Jews but also offers the promise of a cosmic victory that will "wipe away every tear" for all mankind.

A writer of exceptional eloquence and imagination, and profound literary sensibility, Jack Miles has captured once again the lost, fierce, ecstatic power of the greatest work in our literature.

What the Critics Say

"Weaving philosophy and literature into his reflections on the Bible, Miles offers literary perspectives on the life of Christ that are at once provocative and revelatory." (Publishers Weekly) "Provocative and deeply engaging....This is a spectacular story, and Miles tells it well....Exciting reading." (The New York Times Book Review) "Grover Gardner's baritone voice has a serious aura to it, and his pace is appropriately deliberate, permitting the listener to reconsider the Jesus story. Gardner certainly understands and communicates the intentions and nuances of the text in his reading." (AudioFile)

This book sets on its ear the Sunday school wisdom of my childhood and dared me to think critically about Christ, God, faith, and salvation. Threatening for the faint of heart and faith, but rich in history, ancient literature and legend, anthropology, theology, and philosophy, this title propelled my worldview broader. My appreciation for the authors of the New Testament; Christ, the son of man, but Son of God; and God's integrity and texture was enriched and enlivened. My understanding and awareness of what I believe and why will never be the same. Note: This is not a devotional book, nor conservatively Christian treatment of the materal, but rather a respectful, sober, and scholarly examination of an ancient text and its content's place in history and culture. Nonetheless, this book is for seekers, the parched, and those truly searching for perspective.